More than 80,000 journalists have taken part in one of China's
largest nationwide environmental protection campaign in the past 15
years, arousing the public's awareness of energy-saving and
exposing environment polluters.
More than 200,000 news reports have been filed since the annual
media supervision campaign, the All-China Environmental Protection
Century Tour, was launched in 1993, according to the China
Youth Daily.
"These reporters were combating environment violations while
conducting interviews," said Ye Rutang, deputy head of the
environment and resource protection committee of the National
People's Congress (NPC), the campaign's initiator.
The campaign has attracted journalists from 28 media
organizations including the People's Daily, Xinhua News
Agency and China Central Television.
Their reports have helped initiate the overhaul of the country's
potentially dangerous mine industry and drive local authorities
into action to tackle drinking water shortage for 800,000 residents
in east China's Shandong Province.
And more environmental issues have found their ways into the
government agenda following the campaign's investigations on the
Yellow River, Yangtze River and north China's Bohai Sea, the
newspaper reported on Monday.
"The campaign will put people's environment rights high on its
list of priorities in the future, with the prevention and control
of water, air and soil pollution as focus," Ye was quoted as
saying.
"Exposure on grave environment pollution and violations is
expected."
The campaign sets a different theme for every year and, for
2007, it focused on reducing energy consumption and pollutant
emissions, the targets of which the country failed to meet in
2006.
The central government has vowed to cut energy consumption per
unit GDP by 20 percent in the five-year period from 2006 to
2010.
The goal for 2006 was four percent, but the National Bureau of
Statistics reported last March China's per unit GDP energy
consumption fell only 1.23 percent in 2006.
Despite the failure, Premier Wen Jiabao said at the annual parliamentary
full session last year that the "serious" five-year target of
energy consumption reduction will not be changed, and the
government will try every means to reach the goal.
However, figures from the state environmental watchdog showed
China's emission of major pollutants -- sulfur dioxide and chemical
oxygen demand -- over the first nine months of in 2007 dropped for
the first time in several years.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)